[twmiller]

Yep. As mentioned, Apple Watch is the way to go if you're looking for a modern shuffle, and it does support offline Spotify these days.

The issues with using an older shuffle is that replacing the batteries on ANY of them is a massive chore, and none of them have bluetooth, which means you'd be back to dangling wires, which (imo) sucks when running. I believe the later generation nanos supported BT, though, so they might be a cheap candidate for a "music while running" solution.

[soperj]

Plenty of other watches do music(Spotify) too and work with airpods. Garmin for example.

[AlanYx]

>I believe the later generation nanos supported BT

The 7th generation Nano does support Bluetooth, but it has some compatibility wrinkles with some BT headphones. For example, it plays back at a very low volume on first generation Airpods.

[ingvul]

Can you upload your own mp3s to the Apple Watch? Do I need special software for that?

[hbn]

Apple Music has a cloud locker feature, which is the main reason I use it over Spotify. The process isn't as nice as the drag-and-drop into your browser like how Google Play Music did it (RIP), but you can add songs through the Music App on Mac (I assume you can also do it through iTunes on Windows?), set all your metadata, etc. and then you can stream it from any device (except the web player, which is among many other problems with the web player. I wouldn't recommend it)

[kccqzy]

Sure you can. Add those mp3s to the iPhone paired with the Apple Watch. Go to the Watch app and tap on Music. You can choose music to be transferred to the Watch.